Wreck-it Ralph Review

This time, the entity responsible for classics like Mickey and Minnie adds to its ever-growing stable of popular mobile apps with Wreck-it Ralph, named for the movie of the same name. What Disney has managed to do is create a multi-layered game based on the computer-animated feature it is named after. With fan favorites like Where’s My Perry and Where’s my Water, the bar was high.

At initial glance, it looked like a simple game, but Wreck-it Ralph packed a lot of punch — a three-part punch, to be exact — under the surface. The first few levels (parts of Fix-it Felix Jr portion) were intriguingly portrayed in nostalgic 8-bit. It was easy-to-understand fare: Ralph wrecked windows, and I fixed them while avoiding the projectiles, which could knock me down and decrease my in-game life expectancy. With every completed section, the gameplay got harder, with ledges as obstacles and Ralph getting faster and more dexterous with his weapons.

The second featurette, aptly named “Hero’s Way” looked a bit more conventional, but retained the arcade feel. In this part, I liked the subtle shout-out to the villains in the movies, in that I was able to battle Cy-Bugs. In the third mini-game, I got to mix it up with candy branch parts, in an ode to another character in the movie. As always there were points to accumulate, and the game got harder the longer I played.

The game incorporates community leaderboards, which is frankly a must in games of this type.

For a movie spin-off, I found this game to be delightful in its diverse simplicity. I liked that it didn’t strive to recreate the movie, but allowed itself to be engaged by it. I believe Wreck-it Ralph it’s very capable of being a cross-generational favorite.